NHER 27099 (Monument record) - Undated enclosure and fields

September 2005. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of a rectilinear enclosure with possible associated fields and trackways, of unknown definite date, are visible on aerial photographs within arable land to the immediate west of Waxham Hall (S1 and S2). The morphology of these cropmarks would indicate that they are either Romano-British or medieval in date. The shared alignment with the surrounding landscape would suggest that the latter is most likely. The cropmarks indicate that some level of re-organisation has taken place, with some features overlying one another, whilst still appearing to be generally part of the same site. These cropmarks are located within an area of several multi-phase and largely undated cropmarks complexes, see NHER 27726, 39022 and 42037. The site is centred on TG 4365 2637.

A possible fragmentary rectilinear enclosure is located at TG 4360 2636. Due to several offset ditches in close proximity it is hard to discern the original shape of the enclosure. A double ditched linear feature, possibly defining a trackway, runs through the centre of the rectilinear ditches, and this may have originally defined the southern edge of the enclosure. This feature is approximately 65m from the northern ditch of the possible enclosure. The longest ditch of the pair is around 100m long and runs from TG 4360 2632 to TG 4352 2638. The ditches are 4m apart. However there are additional aligned ditches to the south, which may also have acted as boundary defining an area measuring approximately 90m by 65m. To the south of this are two L-shaped ditches, which may also be defining partial rectilinear enclosed areas. At least some of these ditches may be defining fields and paddocks.

A ditch, 130m long, runs parallel to the modern field boundary, from TG 4372 2637 to TG 4383 2629. To the north of the site another ditch runs broadly parallel to the Waxham Road and appears to terminate at the existing field boundary. To the south of the site a further two ditches are visible, which again broadly follow the dominant alignment expressed by the modern field boundaries. It is assumed that this field pattern is medieval to post medieval in origin. It is therefore possible that some of these cropmark ditches are also medieval to post medieval in date and represent earlier field divisions and trackways which have since been removed. It is also possible that the enclosure is also medieval in origin, although the remaining boundaries which are marked on the 1839 Palling tithe map, clearly cut through and post date this series of rectilinear enclosure ditches. The cropmarks morphologically could be interpreted as being Romano-British in date, although at present there is not evidence for this and the shared alignment with the medieval to post medieval landscape is marked.
S. Massey (NMP), 30 September 2005.